


Sith Strike

by Ariella1941



Series: In The Shadow of Empires [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/M, POV First Person, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 00:50:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6401161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariella1941/pseuds/Ariella1941
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the successful attack on Korriban, the Empire stages a raid on Tython, seemingly in retaliation. But both Theron and Aryelle begin to suspect there’s more at work, and it’s up to them to find out what.</p>
<p>Shadow of Revan Era</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sith Strike

**Author's Note:**

> This is where the romance begins and I start going a bit off script. There's going to be more dealing with the fact Aryelle is a Jedi, and try and incorporate more of the Jedi class story into this storyline.
> 
> The stories will probably stay at a teen rating for awhile, but I do tend to get a little mature subject matter in rather than a fade to black :).

_Aryelle Thrace_

The small datapad felt far too warm in its pouch on my belt. Commander Jensyn had all but ordered me to deliver the information we sliced out of the Dark Council’s databanks personally. I had no trouble with that. What I had trouble with was how callously Jensyn dispatched the Sith Lord in the Council Chambers. And worse, the Sith Lord allowed it, even _welcomed_ it. After I handed over the data, I’d seek guidance on the issue from Grand Master Satele.

 There was another issue I needed guidance with, but I felt much more reticent to discuss it with anyone in the Order. When I met Theron Shan it felt as if the galaxy… blinked. As if that moment somehow managed to fundamentally redirect the universe’s expected course. I felt something similar twice before: when I met the Sith Emperor. But the difference was that it I knew it wasn’t what _I_ would do, but what _we_ would do that would change things so radically.

I mentally shook myself as I reached the hatch to Darok’s command post. There’d be time to consider things, but at the moment I just wanted to get this over with. I pressed the admittance button, and stepped through the hatch as soon as it opened.

“I have the data from the Dark Council’s databanks, Colonel,” I told Darok as I fished the small datapad from my belt and passed it over. The Colonel took it, and the sense of excitement, of glee, he began to radiate was obscene.

“Congratulations,” he told me, his voice somewhat calmer than his emotions. “You’ve just succeeded in a mission not many people dared to dream was possible. We’ve proven that victory—true victory—is within reach.”

And under that disturbing excitement I felt something else in his words, as if his comment had a second meaning of some kind.

“Just imagine: all the Emperor’s followers truly defeated at last. We’re close now. I’m sure of it. This is a great day.”

I glanced behind him at Agent Shan, who leaned against one of the consoles. His stance looked casual to anyone who didn’t recognize Jedi training, and when he caught my eyes for a moment, Shan gave a brief nod. We _both_ had a bad feeling about this.

“I don’t see how this could be the beginnings of true victory, Colonel,” I said to him. “This wasn’t much different than the attack on Dromund Kaas. We didn’t hold either objective.”

“Taking Dromund Kaas now is purely a matter of logistics, Master Jedi. If we can open up the lines from— “

Before Darok could finish priority alarms spun up with an ear piercing wail.

“It’s Tython! They need everything we’ve got!” Agent Shan said as a hologram of the home world of the Jedi appeared. I flashed to the last time I’d seen this kind of tactical readout. This time it was much worse.

“What are you talking about?” Darok demanded of the SIS agent.

“Imperial forces just hit Tython. Iso 5 bombings, strike teams in the Jedi Temple… They need our support. _Now_!”

“I’ve got it,” I told Shan, then looked at Colonel Darok. “Force disposition?”

He nodded to me, accepting that this had become my operation, not the SIS, not his.

“Blue squadron, complete refueling operations and launch immediately. Any wave one troops not injured on Korriban gear up and return to your drops shuttles.”

“Colonel, I want everything else you can rally at Tython as soon as possible. Agent Shan? Get me all the tactical data you can, and forward it to the rest of the strike force.” I said as I sensed the galaxy settle into this new course.

* * *

_Theron Shan_  

Master Thrace looked at me with that Jedi serenity as she spoke, but the strange glow I’d seen before burned in the back of her eyes, but there wasn’t time to ask what it was. All I told her was:

“I’ll pull up every bit of data we’ve got and talk you through the whole way. Good luck.”

“Thank you, Agent Shan,” she replied before she turned and strode out the door.

* * *

 

Watching the landing from the perspective of Master Thrace’s holocam, I had to wonder if she was experiencing the same sick feeling I was. This shouldn’t have happened, and I pulled every agent not critical to the war effort to find out how it _did._

I glanced at the tactical display and plugged into the strike team’s com frequency.

“Theron to strike team. Sensors show Imperial forces entrenched all the way to the Jedi Temple. Enemy artillery is going to make any large scale deployment pretty messy,” I said, “relaying coordinates for the arrays now.”

The strike team quickly broke into squads, each handling one of the artillery targeting arrays before heading further in. I’ve never done helpless well, but all I could do was sit there as information came in. Like the numbers of killed in action.

For the moment, it seemed like the Imps were leaving the Twi'lek settlement alone, probably thinking they could sweep it up later. I couldn’t get through to their Matriarch, so all I could do was hope they kept their heads down. Have I mentioned how much I hate feeling helpless?

A light flashed on my console and I grit my teeth as I relayed the information.

“Imps have sliced the defensive shield grid—they’re cutting off our approach vectors.”

“Acknowledged,” Thrace said, “We’ll clear the command platform. That should open it up for the next wave of reinforcements.”

“We’ve managed to triangulate where the Imps sliced in. Think you can make life interesting for them?”

That startled an honest laugh out of her as she told me, “It’d be my pleasure, Agent Shan.”

Within moments, the grid was back under our control, and Thrace and her strike force were making their way down the hillside to the Jedi Temple.

Second and third waves were prepping to land as Master Thrace’s squads took out the heavy defense canons in the Temple courtyard. The few operational security holocams and sensors were reporting that there was some sort of energy shield set around the Temple library.

“You getting this, Master Jedi?”

“Yes,” she replied, “Alec, Brennen, Zor’till, track the energy readings and shut this thing down.”

Another glance at the tac readout showed the transponders of the three soldiers peel off from the main force and head toward the large antechamber near the Temple’s shuttle port. The steady hum of the shield faded as the three-man section did their work, and as Master Thrace crossed the library threshold she was confronted, unsurprisingly, by another Sith.

“Database tags him as Lord Goh, but we don’t have much more than that,” I told her quietly as the Sith just stared at her.

“Let’s see if I can get him to talk,” she said, then turned her attention to Goh. “I took down a Sith on Korriban who wouldn’t shut up.  You don’t seem to have that problem do you?”

Goh shifted his stance slightly, then activated his lightsaber.

“Well, there goes that plan,” Thrace muttered over her private circuit, bringing up her own blades as Goh rushed her.

For the second time I was caught up in a lightsaber duel via Thrace’s holocam, but Goh wasn’t the duelist Sovernus had been, and Master Thrace took him down hard and fast.

The holocam panned down as she knelt next to the Sith’s body.

“There’s nothing here to indicate what they were after,” Thrace said as she stood back up.

“Check the Council Chamber. There might be something there.”

When Thrace entered the chamber, the first thing I noticed was the holocom was on active but on standby. The Jedi Master walked over to the holo’s console, bringing up the image of a true blooded Sith the database identified as Darth Arkous.

 “Lord Goh, the package has been secured. You and your men can proceed with the additional—oh.” the Sith said, then he realized who he was actually speaking to. “Running a bit ahead of schedule, are we? Well, no matter. You can have your little temple back if you like. I’m done with it.”

“If this is your idea of a victory, I would really hate to see what you call defeat, because you haven’t won anything today as far as I can see.”

“I’ve lost, have I?” Arkous said, then cut the connection.

He mentioned a package. He could have been referring to data, like we took off Korriban, but that didn’t feel right. Things weren’t adding up, so I was only half listening when Master Thrace began issuing orders for cleanup. Sensors, holocam logs, I was pulling every scrap of data SIS had from both Tython and Korriban. The connections were there; I was certain of it. It was only a matter of digging deep enough.

* * *

 

I somehow managed to hide my disgust when Colonel Darok greeted Master Thrace.

“Our forces are sweeping the rest of the muck off Tython as we speak,” the Colonel told her, “and reconstruction crews are already being prepped. This could have been much worse. Thanks to you the enemy has only bloodied our nose… and hardened our resolve.”

“That may be, Colonel, but it’s no coincidence that the Empire struck Tython just as we were hitting Korriban.”

“Or it could be that the enemy’s intelligence isn’t the shambles we were lead to believe,” Darok replied in a neutral tone, but I knew what was coming next. “I’m sure the SIS will determine how this slipup happened.”

Unlike Darok, I didn’t bother to hide my feelings. “Yes. We will.”

The Colonel rolled right over my comment and said, “even so you’ve just won two critical battles for the Republic back to back. You’re a hero, and heroes deserve to be recognized.” Darok presented a small case to the Jedi. “The Medal of Valor. No commendation this prestigious has been awarded this quickly. The Chancellor was truly impressed. As am I. Congratulations.”

Thrace accepted the medal grudgingly. It seemed she wasn’t as impressed as the Chancellor or Darok.

“Thank you, Colonel, and please thank the Chancellor for me, but you make it sound as if this is over when there’s still the question of timing along with what Sovernus and Arkous said.”

“We’ll find the answers, Master Jedi, but you’ve done more than enough for one day,” Darok replied “Now then, I’ve been tasked with organizing the Tython cleanup. And I want to be sure that the Jedi Council knows they have our full support. If you’ll excuse me.”

I waited until Darok was out of earshot then looked Master Thrace right in the eye.

“I don’t know about you, but I need a drink.”

The Jedi Master gave me a barely perceptible nod, then I turned and walked out.

We had a lot of ground to cover, but this wasn’t the place.

* * *

 

I’d just finished my holo call when Thrace showed up.

“That was Grand Master Satele, wasn’t it?”

I nodded, keeping my voice neutral. “Acting as emissary to the Drayvous League. Nowhere near Tython,” I shrugged slightly then said, “we aren’t close of course. Your Order is pretty particular on that point.”

“She gave you up as a child,” Thrace said as she studied me.

It was more a statement than a question, but I chose to answer anyway.

“Not that I’m complaining,” I told her, “you Jedi have your rules, and it turns out I don’t have your talent anyway. Everything’s worked out for the best.”

All right, so maybe a _little_ bitterness slipped out, but Thrace pretended she hadn’t noticed.

“Personally speaking, I think you turned out pretty well,” she said with a wry smile which caused me to blink. I searched her face for confirmation, and suddenly Aryelle Thrace went from being a Jedi Master to a very attractive woman. A woman who seemed to be flirting with me.

I gestured for her to sit down. It bought me a moment to remind myself that the woman across from me _was_ a Jedi, but it was harder than it should have been, even with everything I’d just said about the Order’s feeling on attachments.

“I hope that means you’re willing to hear me out a bit then?” I asked her as I came back on balance, and Aryelle nodded. “Even without the Force I know when things don’t add up,” I continued. “These ops, Colonel Darok. Something’s being buried here, I’m sure of it.”

“I agree with you there, Theron,” she replied quietly.

“All right, so the real question is: are you going to take your shiny medal and go home like Darok’s hoping, or are you ready to start digging?”

“So if _you_ were to do some digging, where would you start?”

“I’d start by recruiting someone I could count on. Somebody who’d be willing to face down the Emperor himself if it came down to it. Then I’d find out everything I could about Darok and that Sith Lord you talked to. See if there are any connections.”

“And then?” Aryelle asked rhetorically.

“And then, once I found something, I’d contact my new friend, and we’d get to the bottom of all this. But this is just speaking hypothetically, of course.”

“Oh, of course,” she replied with amused irony. “hypothetically speaking, I think this new friend of yours might be waiting for your call with baited breath.”

That cinched it. Aryelle really _was_ flirting with me, and it was taking a hell of a lot of willpower not to respond.

“Been great chatting with you,” I told her casually as I stood. “We should do it again some time. I’ll see you around.”

I began to walk away, when I heard her call my name. I looked over my shoulder at her, unsure what to expect.

“Theron,” she said.” Hypothetically speaking.  Be careful.”

“You too, Aryelle. You too.”

* * *

_Aryelle Thrace_  

I watched Theron walk away, and tried to consider everything that just happened with my usual Jedi detachment, but it was difficult at best.

I wasn’t sure why I’d flirted with him. It’s not like I did that kind of thing on a regular basis, or at all, despite Doc’s best attempts. Maybe it was that strange sense I had whenever I was with him. The sense that told me together we were going to change the fate of the galaxy somehow.

Or maybe it was the simple fact I found something about Theron Shan so compelling that it made it difficult to hold to the strictures forbidding attachment. Or maybe it was both.

All I knew for certain was that Theron and I would follow this path, wherever it led, no matter what.

End

 


End file.
